Distracting The Keeper
by ZebraBow
Summary: Truth be told, I should have just walked away when the Weasely twins tried to convince me that their Quidditch captain was madly in love with me. But in my defense, when have I ever done the rational thing? OWxOC
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

By ZebraBow

Disclaimer: I do not (sadly) own Harry Potter.

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**In Which Deception Is Fairly Easy To Detect**

"What?" I asked, my face clearly showing how flabbergasted I felt. A pile of transfiguration homework and rolls of half written parchment paper lay in front of me on the Hufflepuff table forming a small, but tedious looking mountain. The din of dinner had died down and almost everyone had left the Great Hall. My quill was still clucthed in my hand from the hurrid writing that I had recently done. Even though I had worked on the Transfiguration essays all afternoon yesterday, today morning, and just now, I still hadn't managed to make a dent into the massive list of work I still had left for that one single class. I didn't even want to think about all of the remaining work I had still left. I shuddered as I thought of all the star charts that were still left over from last week. This was bloody ridiculous considering that we were only half way through the second week of the start of the term.

"You know, it's pretty basic to understand," one of the Weasley twins said. I think it was George or maybe Fred. It was nearly impossible to differentiate the two. Their actions and mannerisms were identical and they were always pretending to be the other twin thus, adding to the already existing heap of confusion. Both of them were tall, red headed, and freckled. All of the Weasley's were. Considering I was in Hufflepuff, I didn't know all of them too well. Still, I knew the basics. There was Head Boy Percy, who was lets just say unique in his own right. Then Fred and George, two people who were way too in sync with each other. Ron, who was Harry Potter's best friend, thus, essentially one third of the golden trio. And last, but not least, little Ginny who was involved in that nasty chamber buisness from last year.

"I know that it might sound like a bit of rubbish," Fred said.

"Yeah, even we couldn't believe it at first," George added in as a second thought.

"But trust us. We solemnly swear that it's the truth." Their mischievous smirks led me to believe otherwise. The Weasley twins were infamous for pulling off pranks on unsuspecting victims and I was not about join that long list of names anytime soon.

"So, what you are trying to tell me is that Oliver Wood also known as the Quidditch Nazi has been for _years _harboring a secret undying love for me?" I asked skeptically while gathering the pile of papers in front of me and trying to stuff them into my Transfiguration text book.

"Well, I think we said that he had an undying flame of eternal love –"

"You know the kind of things that is the long lasting type," Fred said interrupting his twin brother. They both shared a sneak look at each other.

I gave a sigh of exasperation and rose to stand up. "Look, I should really get going. I mean, I still have a ton of Transfiguration work left and Professor McGonagall has been piling on the work recently. She's off her rocker. Honestly, I think she's under the impression that hers' is the only class that we have homework for. I knew that N.E.W.T.S. would be a pain in the arse, but still this is a little too much. By Merlin's beard, it's like she's trying to murder us with work. And I am thoroughly convinced that she has joined some kind of ridiculous alliance with Snape because both of them assign essays on the same day which are both due on the same day. They're probably cackling in some back hallway somewhere at the poor misery that is the life of a seventh year. So, you can understand why I don't have the time to entertain whatever plan the both of you have cooked up."

"I know that it's hard to believe, but he writes sonnets professing his endless love for you. Its bloody annoying having to hear him go on and on about your cornflower blue eyes," said one of the Gryffindors who were currently blocking my way to the exit.

I tucked a strand of my waist long walnut colored hair behind my ear and looked to the Gryffindor table. There sat the object of our entire conversation completely oblivious to whatever was going on. He was sitting with his shoulders hunched over muttering something in complete and utter ignorance to an outside world. In front of him lay an array of papers, most probably plays for Quidditch or something sport wise related. Once in a while, he would shake his head, scribble something down and scratch it off again. Obviously, he looked like a mad man.

"Look boys, I don't have the time of day to be involved in your prank or experiment or whatever you're planning. Find someone else to be involved in your plan." I tightened the Puddlemere United scarf around my neck and picked up my Transfiguration book and held it tight to my chest. I warily eyed some of the papers because some of them looked like they were going to fall out of the book. I started walking away from the two boys, but turned around to say one final piece, "By the way, my eyes are green not blue. You would have known that if he was actually obsessed with me like you said."

"Wait Maddie!" Fred yelled after me. I stopped and turned around to look at the two Gryffindors. George (or was it Fred?) took hold of my hand in his and held it gently. "We're not saying that you have to marry the bloke. Just give him a chance, you know a couple of dates. It doesn't have to be anything special."

"Alright. Why are both of you so obsessed with the idea of your fellow Gryffindor and I starting a romantic relationship?" For the life of me, I don't know why I stuck around listening to anymore of their absurd drabble. I should have just walked away and it was nearing curfew, but I was curious. I sneaked a glance at Wood. He didn't look like he was very much concerned with the idea of being caught out after curfew. Honestly, he wasn't that bad looking. Tall with a mop of chestnut brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. He had quite a large following of fan girls and I knew for a fact that his Scottish accent did tend to make your knees go all _jelloy_. Overall, he was pretty adorable.

George sighed and scratched the back of his neck. I narrowed my eyes. Living with two brothers indicated to me that it was a tell-tale sign that I had caught them red handed. "This is going to sound a bit of weird."

"But you have to know that we don't mean any ill by it. It's just that you are perfect for Oliver."

I nodded, "Go on." I could feel my cheeks heating up. My mum always told me that I could never take compliments well. They though that I was perfect for Wood and he was a _fit _bloke. I looked over at Fred or was it George. Oh Merlin, this was so bloody confusing. Maybe I should just refer to them as Gred and Forge?

"Listen Mads. Can I call you that? You look like a Mads to me. We made a list of girls who could potentially date Oliver. And you made the top of the list: smart, beautiful, kind, a supporter of Puddlemere United because of _well_ your family." Gred said.

I chuckled, "I know that I am pretty amazing, but that still doesn't explain why you spend the last two hours trying to convince me to date your captain."

"Well, it's because he's bloody insane. You know yesterday he scheduled a practice at four in the morning. Do you know what it's like at four in the morning? The grass is cold and dewy. The pitch is so foggy you can't really see any of the players so Merlin forbid if you can actually manage to even spot the snitch in under three hours. The sun hasn't even risen at four in the morning. He is obsessed with winning the Cup this year so he has decided to make all of our lives a living hell." Forge explained.

"I haven't even had a proper night's sleep since he has us having practice every day and then he runs plays by us every time when we are trying to have a nice quiet meal. And I swear that was the last time. We are going insane. I am literally one more practice away from killing him in his sleep." Gred's eyes were wide like a livid intensity.

"Well boys, that sounds like a problem between you two and your captain. Best deal with it on the field rather than involving an innocent girl into the midst of it don't you think?" I finally willed myself to walk away from them and shouted a very firm good night over my shoulder.

It was bloody ridiculous. The whole idea sounded preposterous. I couldn't date Wood. He was obsessed with Quidditch - practically married to the sport. I don't think he even noticed that there were girls attending this school. In my memory, I don't think he _ever_ had a girlfriend. Understandably, he had the occasional Hogsmeade date whenever one of the mindless slags who followed him around managed to snare him into accepting a date. It wasn't like I was a social butterfly either. It may be true that Hufflepuffs tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves, but I didn't exactly to have a list of blokes whose hearts I had broken. Having an extremely overprotective father and an equally overprotective older brother led to me having a completely nonexistent love life. It wasn't that I was completely revolting to look at, but no bloke was completely mental enough to go against the wishes of two burly men whose mission in life was to keep me protected from the male species.

But still, I guess it would be _nice_ to have a lad who you could have a quick snog with behind the oh-so many statues on the third floor.

By the time I was done mulling around with the idea of Wood and I ever going out – not that it was ever going to happen, I came to the sudden conclusion I was lost. I would bet my entire trunk of hidden Chocolate frogs that I had already passed the moth eaten tapestry that strangely resembled the back side of a centaur – _twice_.

It had all started when I wasn't paying attention and one of the staircases I was standing on moved suddenly without warning and dumped me on to the floor of a previously unexplored hallway. Shaking the dust off my robes, I stood up and scanned the hallway. The only sign that anyone had ever used this hallway was the lack of cobwebs and enormous spiders. I shrunk my Transfiguration text book with the countless amount of parchment paper and stuck it in my pocket. I continued walking down the hallway for what felt like ages, taking turns and using my natural instinct for direction to lead my way. I knew that the Hufflepuff common room was in the basement so it was only natural to keep going downstairs. That's why it was so unfathomable how in the world I could be staring at an ancient tapestry that I had already passed at the commencement of my journey.

I trudged my way into (hopefully) a previously uncharted hallway. Hopefully, I wouldn't get caught by Filch or his creepy cat Mrs. Norris. Professor Sprout would have my head if she found me wandering around the hallway past midnight. I would rather take my chances against Head Boy Percy Weasley than Professor Sprout. She might seem all nice and forgiving, but she had a nasty temper towards those who didn't follow the rules and all that jazz.

I let out a sigh of exasperation. Finally, I spotted a moving portrait of a knight who appeared to be sleeping. He was resting on his horse (who also appeared to be asleep). Could portraits evens sleep? "Excuse me sir knight," I said. "I was wondering if you knew the way to the basements."

The knight hadn't even stirred, but his horse let out a neigh and a kick into the dirt as a sign of irritation at the thought of being woken up from its peaceful slumber.

"Excuse me!" I said a little bit louder. "Hello! Can you hear me?" It felt like I was practically shouting.

At this, the knight became startled out of his sleep and fell off his horse. I would have felt bad for him if I weren't at the mercy of Filch and most probably Professor Sprout. "Who goes there?" he asked. "Who dares to wake me from my peaceful slumber at this atrocious time?"

"Well, hello there - terribly sorry for waking you. It's just that I'm horribly lost. I've been always been absolutely rubbish at directions."

"Tis a fair maiden who has come to me with a quest. Tell maiden of which abysmal danger I will have to save you from. I am ready to save you from all foes and beasts alike." The knight jumped off his horse – rousing the poor animal in the process - and unsheathed his silver sword.

"No, you misunderstood," I explained, "there's no quest - all I need is directions to the basement. There are no foes or beasts to slay. I just need directions." No luck. He was now waving his sword wildly around in the air

"My lady, every quest has an unseen foe. Who knows which beasts await your path to the basement." The knight started to pace the picture. The background of the painting was an open field of golden yellow grass.

"Listen, you old barmy knight. All I need is directions to the basement." My patience was wearing thin. This was a complete waste of time. Maybe it would be better if I continued on my own. At this rate, I wouldn't reach the common room until next month. All I wanted was to climb into my cozy bed and take a long deserved shuteye. "Sorry for waking you. It turned out to be a complete waste of time."

I turned around and stomped away. I was irritated to no end. First, it was the Weasley twins with their incessant badgering about Wood, and then it was a charmed staircase that tried to bloody _maim_ me. Then as the piece de resistance, I found the only portrait in a castle filled to the brim with portraits that was unwilling to help a lost student. I would have better luck trying to track down the Fat Friar.

"Fair maiden, do not lost hope!" the knight shouted after me. "All is not lost."

"Yeah, tell that to someone who actually gives a damn." I retorted back. Abruptly, there was the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. Swiftly turning my head and searching the corridor for a nook or statue that I could hide behind. Damn. There wasn't even a drape or an oversized tapestry that I could have hidden behind. I knew that I should have taken my chances and just stuck with the moth eaten tapestry of the centaurs behind.

I could briefly see the outline of the person approaching. Whoever it was, looked like they were running for their dear life.

No.

Oh no.

Oh _bloody_ no.

It couldn't be. How bad could my luck possibly be?

Running towards me with a highly increasing velocity was non-other than Oliver Wood. I must have been quite a sight. Standing in front of a portrait, wide eyed, and mouth agape watching him run towards me. He didn't even slow down when he pulled my hand and dragged me along with him.

I ran along with him wordlessly - still in shock to comprehend what has happening. His hand was still gripping mine and I could feel my sweat glands going into overdrive. Wood was still running at a very reckless speed and let's just put it this way: I wasn't in shape as a certain Quidditch captain. Comprehension finally dawning one me, I stopped. Wood finally realizing that he couldn't drag me along if I refused to move, stopped and turned to look at me.

"Come on Moore. Now's not the time to go all doe eyed on me."

"What?" I asked. Who in the world is going doe eyed? My eyes might be wide from shock and my heart might be beating erratically because of all of the running. Yeah, that has to be it. It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that a really good looking bloke was holding my hand in an entirely deserted hallway in the middle of the night. "Could you just give me a minute? My lungs feel like they are about to explode."

The sound of swiftly approaching footsteps came from the corridor that we had just run from. I think I also heard the sound a cat. Oh no. It seems that Filch and Mrs. Norris were hot on our tails.

Wood tugged my hand again and pulled into an alcove. It was quite small and we were squished into it. My hands were resting on his chest and I could feel his hot breath on my hair. Wood was taller than me and I was extending my neck to look at his face. His brown eyes were staring deep into me. Were we having a connection?

"What's –" Wood stifled my question midway by placing his hand on my mouth. I could feel his fingers lightly touching my lips as he pulled away his hand. He put one of his fingers to his lips as a gesture to remain quiet.

The padding footsteps reached the corridor. "I know that you're here. Come out of where ever you're hiding. Students these days – no respect for the rules and wandering about after curfew." I heard Filch mumble. The caretaker went to the extremes with the punishments recently. Ever since the Dementors came in search of Sirius Black, Filchs' already debauched mood took a dive for the worse.

Mrs. Norris walked towards our little alcove. My breath hitched and I felt like my heart stopped beating. That little cat was the personification of evil. Thankfully, she walked by the alcove and continued down the corridor and took a right turn. Filch faithfully followed his demonic cat and left the corridor. I let out a breath of air that I was holding in.

"What were you doing?" Oliver asked.

"What?"

"Making all of that noise. Were you trying to rouse the whole castle?"

I let out a cry of frustration. "What? I wasn't the one that had Filch chasing me down the hallway. For your information Wood, I was just making my way to my common room."

"I wouldn't have Filch following me if he didn't hear you shouting. I ran this way to warn whatever stupid girl had a death wish. Honestly, why are you even wandering around? Didn't you hear the news about Black?"

Of course, Wood. I didn't hear about Sirius Black. Is he a famous pop-star? And didn't you know? Filch and I are the best of friends. We were planning on having a tea party in the creepy and drafty corridor. Well, this was what I wanted to say. But I kept my tongue in check. The only appropirate retort I could come up with was, "well, it wasn't like I asked for your help."

"Moore. It wasn't like I was just going to leave you there."

"Look, I'm not some damsel in distress that needs a bloke to save her. I was doing perfectly fine until you came along." Stupid Wood and his stupid reason. I wasn't some girl that needed a guy to come charging in and save the day. I had my own brains and I wasn't stupid by any means.

"Moore," he said as if he was challenging me.

"Wood," I said back squaring back my shoulders in an attempt to look taller. I pushed my hair out of my face. It must have looked frazzled and ratty like an old birds nest that's been caught in the crossfire between two cats - how lovely.

"Ok, just listen," he said while raking his fingers through his hair, "what were you doing out here at this hour?"

I sighed - it was time to clean. I really shouldn't stall any more than I had to. I mean it's not like Wood and I were good friends. He wasn't a complete stranger. I had him in a couple of my classes throughout the years, but we were never partners or anything like that. I kept to myself and he kept to himself. "I was lost. The staircase changed and somehow I ended up in a corridor that I have never seen in seven years. And all I ever wanted was to get back to my common room."

"Ok," I could tell that he was fighting back a smile. He pulled me along the corridor and turned to the left. I looked down and saw that he was still holding my hand tightly in his grasp. We walked down the hallway in complete and utter silence. It wasn't awkward at all - not.

Wood took so many turns that I couldn't even keep track of it. Before I knew it, we were both in front of the empty Charms classroom. Never before have I been so glad to see the Charms classroom.

"Well then, you know your way from here?" Oliver asked.

"Yes, thank you." I replied back. I had to admit it, but he was a gentleman. Most blokes my age would have just left me in the corridor and made me find my way back by myself.

"Good night," he said with a firm nod.

I stood there looking at him expectantly. Oh bloody hell, he still didn't get it. I made a grand gesture as I looked down at our adjoined hands. How in the world was I supposed to go to my common room if he was still holding my hand?

Oliver looked down at our hands and dropped them as if they were on fire. Was that a light blush on his face? No, it must have been red from all of the running. My hands felt a little bit cold without his warm hand holding it.

"Good night Wood," I smiled and started walking towards the staircase (a nonmoving one) that led to the basements.

"Moore," Wood yelled after me, "nice scarf."

The grin on my face grew even larger. Who knows. He seemed like a nice lad, maybe he wasn't completely horrible after all.

By the time I made my way down to the Hufflepuff common room, it was way past midnight. There was no one in the cozy common room. I couldn't see out of the big circular windows since it was still pitch dark outside and collapsed on to the overstuffed yellow and black sofa. I was plain tuckered out. No, I didn't want to fall asleep in the common room – again. I had already spent too many nights in the common room over piles of books and tonight was a day where I wanted to trudge up to my comfortable bed and sleep soundlessly.

I followed the little underground tunnel leading to the circular door leading to the seventh year girls' dormitories. To my vain, my least liked roommate, Cassandra Middlebrooks, was wide awake. She was always a little too chipper (among other things) for my liking. The rest of my roommates (the normal ones) were fast asleep in their copper beds and blissfully unaware of our conversation.

"Oh, hi Madeleine! Cutting it a bit close tonight aren't you? It's a miracle that Filch didn't catch you tonight," Cassandra said.

"Hello to you too Cassie," I said while I fell back onto my quilt covered copper bed. The copper bed warmer hanging on the wall had already started to warm my cold feet. I didn't want to move from this spot. Unfortunately, I could feel the Transfiguration book that I had shrunk and put in my pocket poking into my stomach. I dug it out of my pocket and put it on my side table.

"I don't think I told you, but my Mum managed to find a very special edition of Quidditch Weekly for me," Cassandra gloated.

Oh bloody no. My spirits just took a suicidal jump of the Astronomy tower.

Not that one.

Ugh. How in the world had she managed to find it?

I closed my eyes and placed a pillow on my face. I did not want to hear anymore of what she had to say. I could hear her walking towards the foot of my bed.

"By the way, your Dad looks quite good in all of that shirtless glory. I would just eat him up if I could."

I groaned and pushed my face further into the pillow. "Oh do shut up Cassie."

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Authors Note: Next update will be same time next week (if not earlier). Thanks for bearing with my grammer and any other mistakes.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. If you don't believe me, feel free to check my bank balance.

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**In which I fold like a house of cards**

That night I had a dream – more like a ruddy nightmare. I was on the Quidditch field and my great aunt Eloise was helping me into an extremely puffy white wedding gown. It looked like someone tried to drown me in multiple rolls of toilet paper.

The wedding march started playing and my dad started escorting me down the aisle. The weird thing was that he was dressed in his beaters uniform from his glory days on the Puddelemere United team.

My entire house was seated on the white lawn chairs arranged in rows on the fresh grass of the Quidditch field. However, in the first row, sat my entire family and Cassandra Middlebrooks who appeared to be snogging my younger brother Grant.

"Your dad said no," she said during a break from sucking my brothers' face. "So, I settled for your younger brother. I know that he is a little young, but I think he has a lot of potential." She giggled and flipped her ash blonde hair over her shoulder. She was dressed up in one of her typical slaggy outfits.

I wanted to scream and yell at Grant to get away from the slag, but my mouth felt like it was glued shut. Maybe someone had _silencio_ed me before my dream had begun.

The worst was still yet to come. At the end of the aisle, in the place of the groom, stood Oliver Wood. He was dressed in his Gryffindor Quidditch robes. His hand clutched his broom as if his dear life depended on it.

I mutely walked to the end of the aisle. My dad kissed my cheek and took a seat next to Mum. My eyes were silently pleading for him to come back and rescue me because my legs felt like they were frozen to the spot.

"Madeleine, what are you doing here?" Wood asked.

All of the guests started laughing. I searched with my eyes to see what was so funny.

"And why are you dressed as the bride?" Wood questioned again over the clamor of the guests. "Don't you know that I'm marrying my broom?"

I gasped and woke up clutching my head. It was pounding like someone had hit me on the head with a club. In my early morning haze, I pushed back the curtains that surrounded my copper bed. I surveyed my yellow and black dormitory and noticed that my dorm mates were unaware of my fitful sleep. Suppressing a groan, I laid back on my bed.

I've always been an early riser. My Mum blamed it on the fact that my Dad and brothers were always awake before sunrise for early Quidditch practice. It was nearly impossible to sleep with three people stomping around the house. I was always a light sleeper and years of waking early in the morning stuck with me even after I came to Hogwarts.

The ancient clock in the clock tower chimed, indicating that it was six in the morning. Well, I was already awake and six wasn't too early to be awake. When I was just a measly first year, my dorm mates always looked at me in wonder at the fact that I was awake, dressed, fed, and prepared for class by the time they awoke.

I put on my bedroom slippers and shuffled to the bathroom. Ugh, why do I always look like the bride of Frankenstein in the morning? Somehow during the night, my hair rolled up into a mass of hair on the side of my head that strangely resembled a bird's nest.

I went through my daily morning routine and started brushing my long hair. I brushed it one hundred strokes – to make it extra shiny – and pulled it into a high pony tail. I normally didn't wear much makeup. It was usually some brown eyeliner on my upper eyelid and white eyeliner on my waterline. This made my eyes bigger and more expressive. Dabbing a little bit of cherry lip-gloss, I smiled at my reflection in the mirror.

I walked back into the dormitory and put on my shoes – extremely comfortable flats – before putting on my robes. I decided to put on my Hufflepuff tie today and chose my Puddelemere United bracelet to put on my right wrist.

"Maddie, is that you?" asked the girl whose bed was next to mine. Her voice sounded groggy and indicated that she was in the early stages of awareness.

"Yes Prudence," I whispered back. "Just going to get a spot of breakfast, you continue sleeping. It's only half past six."

I quietly walked out of the dorm and made great care not to disturb my fellow housemates. Just because I was incapable of sleeping in doesn't mean that I have to wake everyone in the house. I made my way past the barrels that led to entrance of the Hufflepuff house. Our house was extremely unique in that we had no portrait and a password wasn't necessary. Instead, there was a secret sequence of taps on the barrels which allowed the person to enter the common room when it was done correctly. Surprisingly, no non-Hufflepuff member had entered the common room in the past five hundred years. The cozy house was also the nearest one to the kitchens. This made it perfect for any late night treats - something which my dorm mates were notorious for.

Not surprisingly, there were only a handful of people in the Great hall considering it was so early in the morning. The morning breakfast rush usually started at around half past seven and it was only now half past six.

The four tables were filled with an assortment of breakfast foods. Like most days, the Hufflepuff table was entirely devoid of people. Since the Hufflepuff dorms were so cozy, the Puffs tended to sleep in. I looked around and spotted Penelope Clearwater at the Ravenclaw table. I walked to the table and sat down next to the blonde.

"Hi Penelope," I greeted her.

"Hello Madeleine," she greeted back. She proceeded to take a dainty bite out of a buttered croissant. "Did you finish your Transfiguration essays?"

I snorted. It would take me forever to finish them. "Not yet," I replied. "Hopefully, they will be finished by the end of this week. I still have Astronomy charts left."

The rest of breakfast continued in polite conversation between the two of us. Slowly, the Great Hall became filled with more students. By the end of breakfast, the head boy Percy Weasley came to the Ravenclaw to meet his girlfriend.

"Hello Penny!" He gave her a swift peck on the cheek. "Madeleine," he looked in my direction and gave a polite nod. His fingers intertwined with Penelope's and gave her a small glance. No matter how much of a pompous idiot Percy was, he was absolutely adorable with his girlfriend.

I stood up and told my goodbyes to the two of them. I didn't feel like intruding them on their private couple time. It was now only a quarter past seven and I still had plenty of time until my first class of the day – Potions with the Ravenclaws.

I walked around aimlessly around the castle. I knew that I should have gone to the common room, grabbed my Transfiguration text book and started on the piles of essays to be completed, but I felt too lazy today. The weather was beautiful and the air felt crispy clean. I needed some fresh air because I had been cooped up in the castle for too long.

I reached the grounds and noticed a figure sitting under a large willow tree. I walked a little closer and noticed that it was Katie Bell. She was dressed fully in her practice Quidditch uniform. I came a little closer and noticed that she was completely asleep. It was an amusing scene; she was completely asleep and unaware to her surroundings.

"Katie," I pushed her head with my finger. "Katie, wake up."

She groaned and opened her eyes. "Where am I?" Her eyes were rapidly blinking trying to adjust to the bright light outside.

"You're under a tree on the grounds." Was she coming from or going to Quidditch practice. It seemed a little late for practice to start.

"What's the time?"

"Half-past seven."

She snapped and turned her eyes searching the grounds. "I'm so late. Oliver's going to murder me." She ran off and yelled out, "Thanks for waking me up Maddie!"

I watched her run off to the Quidditch field. She was literally sprinting. See, this is why I know Wood is off her rocker. Normal people are not scared of their Quidditch captains. No one in the Hufflepuff house is scared of Cedric. Well, he is a complete sweetheart.

I started walking back to the castle. Maybe, it was time to work on my essays a little bit.

Potions was normal; well as normal as potions could be. Snape was still a greasy git. The potion we were making was difficult as usual. The only good thing was that I was partners with Prudence who still looked half asleep. Even though she was only slightly conscious, our potion turned to the perfect lilac color it was supposed to be when we finished. Prudence was a genius at potions. And after seven years of being potions partners, even I had slightly mastered the art of potions. Her words of wisdom led me to receive an Outstanding on my O.W.L.S. and I didn't look as lost as my fellow seven years.

To my delight, Cassandra's potion turned purple and startled to bubble some noxious fumes. We all had to leave the dungeons until the fumes cleared out. Snape had to empty the cauldron and banished it from our sight. She was given two days detention with Filch for not following the directions properly. My day was off to a glorious start.

The glorious start came to a crashing end. Somehow the tomato twins managed to find me in-between classes. I was walking to the greenhouses for Herbology when they suddenly came out of nowhere. Each twin sandwiched me in the middle as we walked down the corridor. We walked for a while without saying anything. I stopped walking and stood in my spot. I wasn't going to take another step until I knew what they wanted from me now.

"The both of you need to stop bothering me," I stood my ground not backing down. For Merlin's sake, they were both younger than me.

"Please Madeleine," Gred said. "We are begging you."

"If you want, we will sink to our knees and grovel," Forge added. I surveyed them with curiosity. They both seemed pretty desperate.

"We will even stop pranking the Hufflepuffs – for the rest of the month." Forge's eyes were really serious. Actually, they both seemed pretty intense. What happened overnight to lead to this sudden change?

"What happened?" I asked. My curiosity was peeked. Maybe Wood had made them do something illegal and the ministry was just minutes away from arresting them.

"It's Oliver. He's gone off the deep end."

I groaned and continued walking towards the green houses. I was going to be late if I continued to converse with these two. Professor Sprout hated to show favoritism, she gave detentions to anyone who walked in through the doors late – no matter which house they were in.

Gred ran to me and with his long strides caught up with me in no time. He grabbed both of my hands and stared into my eyes. His brother also caught up to us by this point. "Please Maddie. Just hear us out. Katie was late to practice –"

"Yes, I know. I was the one who woke her up when she was napping under the tree." I explained. So she was a little late to practice, but why were they acting like it was the end of the world.

"Katie was late by an hour and a half. So, Oliver told her that she had to do an hour and a half's worth of suicide runs as punishment. And Katie said no because she said that all of the other teams don't even have morning practices. She said that he should be grateful that anyone even shows up for these morning practices."

Oh no. I had a bad feeling. A ticked off Oliver Wood was a really bad thing. It sounded like Katie might have made the remaining practice for the rest of the team horrible. However, asking Katie to do that much suicide runs sounded ridiculous. He was their captain – not a Death Eater in training.

"Oliver yelled at her for a while about how she doesn't have any motivation and how it was his last chance to win the Cup. Then, Katie screamed out that she quit and stormed off the field."

I grimaced. I was pretty good friends with Katie Bell. I knew her from the school for magical children that I had attended as a child. She was a pretty nice girl, but she was always obsessed with Quidditch. I couldn't even imagine her ever giving up Quidditch. She must be pretty heartbroken about it. Maybe I should talk to Wood – just talk _not_ date.

Believe it or not, Oliver Wood and Percy Weasley are best friends. And I was good friends with Penelope Clearwater due to all of our breakfast meetings. Due to the fact that Percy and Penelope were dating, this made Wood and me a sort of friends by default. We were in the same year, had plenty of classes together, but we had never really talked properly.

"Fine," I said, "I'll talk to him. Just talk – no dates involved. And I'm doing this for Katie, not for you two."

"Thanks Maddie!"

"We knew we could count on you.'

Thankfully, by the time I made to the green house number three, class hadn't started. I only had sat down when Professor Sprout walked in and instructed us to be quiet.

"You all must have noticed the large leaves on the side tables. They are called Caprius invitius," Professor Sprout begin with her instructions. I turned and saw the four or five long tables with brightly colored magenta leaves that were the size of my head. They looked oddly like maple leaves, but there was a sweet odor coming from them that filled the entire room. It smelled like the inside of a candy factory. "Do not be mistaken by the sweet odor. These leaves are highly toxic when it comes in contact with human skin so make sure to wear your protective gloves. If I find someone who is not wearing them, they will have to serve detention with me for two months."

At this declaration, everyone hurriedly put on their gloves rather than take the chance of forgetting to put them on. Detention with Sprout meant cleaning the greenhouses – all of them. It usually would take forever. And by some miracle if you manage to finish the task, she would have you catalog all of the plants. Detention for two months with Professor Sprout probably meant a plethora of various jobs around the green houses.

"Today you will be washing them in a special solution that Professor Snape has so kindly prepared for us. Each leaf should be thoroughly washed until the odor is no longer present. After the leaves are thoroughly cleaned, they are no longer toxic. However, do not remove your gloves until I have checked them to see if instructions were followed properly."

We all gave a nod and tried to show that we understood what she was telling us. It seemed pretty simple. All we had to do was wash some leaves until they no longer smelled.

Professor Sprout scanned the room, "now, can anyone tell me what the magical property of Caprius invitius is?"

Almost immediately a hand shot in the air. We were all pretty surprised that it was not Percy Weasley since he was kind of a know it all. Even Professor Sprout seemed surprised as Bridget Baylor's hand remained in the air. "Yes, Ms. Baylor."

"It's used in glamour potions." Bridget answered with a smile. Bridget was the quintessential Hufflepuff. She was all blonde, bubbly, and always had a smile for everyone – even the Slytherins.

"Correct Ms. Baylor. Ten points to Hufflepuff." Professor Sprout announced.

Bridget beamed.

"Can anyone else tell me for which specific glamour potions it is used for?" She scanned the room looking for anyone who made eye contact. Even Percy looked a little stumped at her question. "Ms. Moore?"

Oh buggers, she called on me. I could practically feel everyone's stare on me. I had no idea what they were used for. It's not like I was another Hermione Granger who read the Herbology text book in her free time for enjoyment.

Bridget was making weird glances at me. What in the world was she doing? She was making equally weird gestures with her hands to her hair. She started to play with her hair obnoxiously. Was she trying to tell me something?

Oh! I felt like slapping myself on the forehead. "It's used for hair glamour potions."

"Excellent! Another ten points to Hufflepuff." Professor Sprout turned around and walked to the long tables. She started assigning various students to each table. The groups were mixed with Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors.

I mouthed a thank you to Bridget as she walked to a table with me. I was assigned to the table nearest to the door with Prudence, Bridget, and Wood. This was my perfect chance to talk to Wood about the whole Katie situation. I did that whole telepathic best friend thing with Prudence about having me work with Wood and having her work with Bridget.

She nodded back, "Hey Bridget. Let's work together."

Bridget gave Wood and me a sly glance. She smiled at the two of us and turned around to speak with Prudence. Wood silently stalked to the table and I could practically feel the waves of anger rolling off him.

"So, I guess I'll wash and you smell?" I asked Wood. He grunted in response. This conversation is not going to go anywhere if all he was going to do was grunt.

"How was practice?" I asked off handedly. I wanted to seem casual and slowly work Katie into the conversation.

When he didn't respond, I asked my question again. It seemed that he snapped back into reality and murmured back, "It's alright."

Most of the other students had already started working and I grabbed two leaves and dunked them in the tray of solution. The solution resembled water but it had an oily consistency. I continued to remove and dunk the leaves in the solution until I thought it was clean enough. I held up the leaves to Oliver's face, "here, smell this."

He tentatively brought his nose closer and took a sniff. His eyebrows were furrowed together and his face looked adorable. I giggled and saw him give me a curious look.

"Are these alright?" I asked. "Is the odor gone?"

"Yeah, I think these are fine." He took the leaves from my hands and started drying them with magical rag towels that we were made to soak up any of the excess toxin.

We continued to work in silence until we finished washing and drying. I was pretty surprised to see that we were one of the first groups to complete the task. Guess it's pretty easy to do when there is no idle chatter.

Professor Sprout came by our table and checked our leaves. "These look alright. Now, place them in this box. I have to let them dry out over night before I can give them to Professor Snape." Wood took the leaves that we had placed in a neat pile and placed it into the box. Professor Sprout continued to walk around the room and check others progress.

Was it just me or was Wood a little down? Usually, by now he would have cracked a couple of jokes about how Gryffindor was going to crush Hufflepuff on the Quidditch field.

We were both just standing there quietly. Prudence and Bridget seemed like they were in their own world as they discussed which company truly had the best glamour potions.

"Oliver, are you alright?" I asked.

He gave me a small smile. "You just called me Oliver."

"Well, that is your name last time I checked." I retorted back. I could feel my cheeks heat up.

"Yes, but you always call me Wood or that Gryffindor bloke."

"But that describes you perfectly," I explained. "Hey! You never answered my question."

"No," he said. "I've just been having a bad day."

"Want to talk about it?" I asked. Yes! I was going to solve all of his problems – and in turn the tomato twins problem – by helping him talk through it. Mum always did say that discussing your issues was the first step to solving them.

"Well, we had practice this morning today as usual."

"Of course," you could practically hear the sarcasm rolling off the words. However, it seems that Oliver failed to pick up on it.

"It was going okay until Katie decided to walk in late. I gave her a punishment and she refused to take it. I can't have that kind of insubordination on the team and when she gave her ultimate that she quit; I let her walk off the field. In Quidditch, you have to be on time to practice. It shows responsibility and your ability to function as part of a team. If she wasn't willing to show those qualities, she doesn't deserve a spot on the team. I'm just a little stressed out."

"Why? You know this will all blow over in a couple of days. She will get her spot back in a couple of days. Katie is a great chaser and she deserves to be part of the team."

"Look, you and I both know that Katie is stubborn. And I will have to have try outs for the chaser position if I have any hope in preparing for the match against Slytherin."

I have been nodding my head until this point. "I don't understand. Why don't you just apologize to her? I get where you are coming from, but the punishment you gave out did not fit the crime."

Oliver spluttered as if I had said something offensive. "Why should I apologize? I'm captain and she should follow my orders."

"But being captain should not mean that you should expect your team to bow down at your feet."

Until this point, we had been speaking in hushed whispers. Our voices were becoming louder and I knew that we were attracting attention from the tables near us. Even Bridget and Prudence had stopped working and were watching the two of us disagree.

"I am not asking them to worship me," he said. "They should just follow my orders."

"Listen Wood. Show some leniency towards them. I know you want to win the Cup this year, but it doesn't mean that you have to kill your team to get it."

"Look Moore. You have no idea what you are saying. Just because you're family is almost entirely made up of professional Quidditch players does not mean that you have the right to question my captaincy."

I scoffed. I could feel myself getting angry. I guess I should explain. My dad used to play beater for Puddlemere United back in his glory days. He's been retired for a long time now, but acts as one of the coaches for the team. My aunt Gloria played as keeper for the Cannons. My uncle Nick played for various different teams during his career as a seeker. My brother – Tristan – was currently a beater for Puddlemere United.

"Besides, it's not like you even play Quidditch," he murmured beneath his breath.

That was it. I was seeing red. "You don't have to play the sport to see what you are doing is a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Who in the world puts morning and evening practices? Oh yes, that's right. The wonderful captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team who doesn't care if his players are failing classes or suffering from lack of sleep." I was seething at this point. He just had to drag my family into it. Just because I came from a Quidditch obsessed family did not mean that I was a prodigy at the sport. I could barely fly a broom without falling off.

"Well, I think you are a bloody busy body who should mind her own business."

"Real mature Wood. If you weren't such a horrible captain, I would have turned a blind eye." I could see him cringe. It was one thing to insult his methods, but to question his captaincy – I may have gone too far.

"You're just a barmy girl who thinks she can rule the world because –"

"Both of you! That is enough," Professor Sprout interrupted him. I forgot for a minute that we were in the green houses, in the middle of class. The entire class was watching us having our row. "Detention for both you. Tonight at six thirty."

"But Professor, she was –" I knew that Wood would be angry about having detention. He would have to miss one of his precious practices. It made me feel a little bit better about having to serve detention. If Wood could stick his head out of his arse once in a while, he would know that Sprout rarely showed leniency.

"No ands, buts, or ifs Mr. Wood. You should have thought about that before you started a shouting match in the middle of class. And don't bother brining your wands to detention today. There will be no need of wands for what I'm planning on having you do tonight," Professor Sprout walked away from the two of us muttering about how disrespectful students are these days.

The rest of the class slowly returned to their work. I stood there silently next to Wood. Hands still in their gloves, fingers furrowed into fists – angry that I would have to see Wood again today.

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Authors Note: This chapter was slightly harder to write because I just wanted everything to flow well. Hope you guys are okay with this pace, but it should start picking up next chapter. Feel free to review and please let me know about grammar mistakes. This is the longest chapter I have ever written! I feel so proud of myself.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

By ZebraBow

Authors Note: I wish I owned Harry Potter, but sadly I do not.

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**In which praise is given **

I managed to be the first one out of the green house after class was over. I might have pushed some of my classmates out of the way in my rush to get outside. It felt like the room was suffocating after my fight with Wood. I know that Prudence was calling my name, but all I wanted was to eat my weight in comfort food. The Great Hall would be filled with food for lunch and I didn't feel like having anything healthy - maybe I could just eat a plate full of desserts for lunch.

I stomped my way through the corridors to the Great Hall scaring some puny first years on the way. I knew that my face was marred with a frown and my baby hair was frazzled. When I reached the Hufflepuff table, a few of the Puffs stopped their eating to see the vision of rage that was in front of them – me.

I plopped down next to a group of third year girls who were discussing which was the better shoe – the wedge or the heel. It was so good to know that the future rested on their bright young minds. I grabbed a cup of triple layer chocolate mousse – my favorite – and stick a huge spoonful in my mouth while absentmindedly listening in on their conversation. Bridget came along and sat down as I started on my fourth cup of mousse.

"What was that," she asked.

"What," I asked back. I was holding a spoon in my hand and a half-finished cup of chocolate mousse in my other hand.

"You and Oliver, all of that sexual tension –"

"Hold on," I spluttered. "What sexual tension? Wood and I do not have sexual tension. I don't have any urges for him. Well maybe, the urge to hex his arse off."

"Keep telling yourself that. Sweetheart, denial is not just a river in Egypt." Bridget grabbed a plate and pilled on food. I made a confused expression; some of the muggle expressions were really weird. What did my problems with Wood have to do with rivers in Egypt?

Before I was about to ask what in the world she was talking about, Prudence sat down and put her head on the table. "I hate my sister," she said.

Oh! Prudence and her sister didn't always see things eye to eye. They always fought about trivial things – usually about her sisters' relationship with boys. "What did Patience do now?" I asked.

"Ugh," she moaned. "I found her in a broom closet with fourth year from Slytherin. Honestly, I don't know what she was thinking. She's only in second year. If she's already doing this in second year, I can't imagine what she will be doing by her seventh year."

Patience Cromwell was a little bit boy crazy. It seemed like she had a different boyfriend every week. Even though she and Prudence resembled each other strongly, sandy blonde hair and brown eyes – their personalities were exact opposites of each other. Prudence was a bit of a prude (a long running joke in our house) and was extremely picky about her boyfriends.

Patience, on the other hand, choose to do whatever she liked much to the disappoint of her pureblood family.

"Maybe your parents shouldn't have named her Patience," Bridget added absentmindedly.

Prudence groaned.

"Not the time for your jokes Bridget." I said as I reprimanded her. I turned to face Prudence who was sitting next to me. "You shouldn't worry about her Prue. She will grow out of this stage soon enough."

"I hope so," Prue said. "I don't want her to turn into another Cassandra."

"What are you guys talking about," Cassie said as she popped out of nowhere. Speak of the devil and she will appear.

"Nothing," Bridget added a little too quickly. Even though Cassie was a little loose, we weren't rude to her by any means. I think this was due to our Hufflepuff characteristics. It was still a mystery to us as to why Cassandra was sorted into the Hufflepuff house by the Sorting Hat.

I was still mulling over my chocolate mousse when I saw the tomato twins quickly approaching the Hufflepuff table. I knew that by now the entire castle must have heard about my little fight with Wood. The Weasley twins must be annoyed that I made their captain more irritated rather than calming him down.

I grabbed my messenger mouth and dabbed a napkin on my chocolate smeared mouth. "Got to run guys. See you later!"

"You got a letter from your parents this morning. I left it on your bed," Prudence told me.

"Thanks," I said. I walked to the Hufflepuff dorms hastily. Lunch was almost over and the others would be making their way to the classes. Thankfully, today I had a free period in the afternoon. It was the perfect time to work on the left over work from Transfiguration. Most of the time, Prudence received the letters from my parents since I was never there in the morning to receive them. She would take them from my family owl – Owl who was aptly named by my genius of a brother Tristan – and place it on my bed.

It was already Thursday; my parents had a very strict rule that we should have correspondence at least once a week. Usually, I would jolt down a quick note of how my week was and send it with one of the school owls. But I had been so busy lately due to the daunting amount of schoolwork. If I didn't send a reply soon, Mum was probably going to send a Howler.

I entered the Hufflepuff common room and made my way to the dorm room. Just like Prudence said, a letter was waiting on my pillow. A scrawled 'Maddie' was written on the cover. I plopped down on my bed and ripped the cover of the letter. Like I predicted, it was a letter from Mum.

_Dear Maddie,_

_How is school darling? I hope you caught up on all of the schoolwork that you mentioned about last week. I remember when I was at Hogwarts and your father always procrastinated on his work. Sweetheart, you don't know how relieved I was that you inherited my brains. Your father is also trying to convince me that there is no need to send Grant to Hogwarts next year. He found some kind of Quidditch camp in Switzerland. Grant seems to think it's a brilliant idea of course. I think he is just excited about the idea of playing Quidditch all day._

_If you have time dear, please write a letter to Grant about how wonderful Hogwarts is. I am just a little worried about his complete disinterest in studies. Also, write to your father too. He just came to the sudden realization that you might not be living at home when school ends. Honestly, it's like he has refused to acknowledge the fact that you are an adult now._

_By the way, I saw Mrs. Davies at the market yesterday. She asked about you. She told me that Roger couldn't stop talking about you all summer. Oh sweetheart, I just wish that you would give the boy a chance. Roger is a nice young man. Or at least get a boyfriend. By the time I was your age, I had a handful of boyfriends. I just hope that you will bring a boy for home this Christmas. Despite what your father and brothers think, I give you my full blessing._

_Tristan flooed over yesterday with Emily. She is positively glowing. She couldn't stop looking at her ring finger the entire time through lunch. Grandmum's ring was an absolute perfect fit for her. She was thinking of a fall wedding for next year because she wanted to involve you in the planning process. I am so happy that Tristan found a girl who really loves him for him. I wish that you would find someone who makes you as happy as he is._

_Lots of love,_

_Mum_

_P.S. Don't forget to write Grant._

You know your love life is in a pathetic state when your own mother begs you to get a boyfriend. Mum's letter sounded like typical Mum – a busybody who was way too involved in other people's lives. I had to bite back a smile as I grabbed a blank parchment paper and quill. It was better to reply to the letter now rather than wait and possibly forget about it.

_Dear Mum, _

_School is school. I still haven't caught up with all of the work, but I am planning on going to the library after I finish writing this. And Mum, you should have known that Dad was obsessed with Quidditch before you married him. Honestly, Grant is like a mini-Dad. But if it makes you feel better, I will write to Grant and convince him about Hogwarts. He must be the only ten year-old who is not excited about coming to Hogwarts. _

_I am not going to start dating Roger Davies. So, stop holding your breath. I don't know if Roger wants to date me or our family. Every time I talk to him, he just wants to know how try outs for Puddlemere are going. He probably thinks that dating the daughter of the coach of the team gives him a better chance of making the team. Only if he knew how much Dad hates it when a guy talks to me. Probably the only reason I talk to him is because I love to see Dad squirm._

_Tell Emily that I say hello! I miss all of our girly lunches. And I think a fall wedding will be beautiful. Hopefully the two of you will be done with planning by the time when I am done with school. Honestly, I don't know how Tristan managed to land a bird like Emily. For the first three months, I truly believed that she was under a love potion._

_Mum, when I get a boyfriend, I will let you know. It's not like I am getting a list of suitors following me. And, I am not going to bring home a random bloke home for Christmas. If I do bring a bloke home, he would be someone special._

_Love, _

_Maddie_

_P.S. Also, tell Dad not to worry. I might be living at home for a couple of months after school is over. _

I grabbed another piece of parchment paper and scrawled a quick note to my younger brother. Mum would be impossible to deal with if Grant actually went to the Quidditch thing in Switzerland. Of course, Dad would be over the moon, but Mum the bookworm would be so upset that Grant was deprived of a proper education.

_Dear Grant,_

_Stop trying to give Mum a heart attack. You know how upset she gets about Dad's crazy Quidditch plans. Hogwarts is beautiful and magical. You can play for your house team when you get here. Don't worry little brother; I am sure that you will fall in love with Hogwarts when you get here. If you choose to pursue this whole Quidditch school thing in Switzerland, you should know that I know for a fact that Lydia Higgins will be attending Hogwarts next year and definitely not something in Switzerland. If you want any chance of ever dating Lydia – don't pretend that you don't fancy her – better attend Hogwarts._

_Love and miss you,_

_Maddie_

Satisfied with what I wrote, I grabbed a piece of thread and tied the two pieces of parchment paper. I didn't have my own personal owl so I would have to use one of the schools' owls to send my reply. Since I did have some time due to having no class in the afternoon, I could make my way leisurely to the Owlery. I grabbed my bag and Transfiguration text book and made my way out of the common room. Classes had started for the rest of the students so the hallway was quite empty. Well, except for two people. George and Fred Weasley were both standing outside the entrance of the common room with hands crossed across the chest and matching grim expressions.

"Don't the two of you have class right now?" I asked exasperated.

"Of course we do Mads," Gred said.

"But we were never Percy material." Forge added.

"I am sure that both of you know by now, but Oliver and I had a fight. I'm sorry if I riled him up." I had poked a sleeping dragon and I knew that I would pay the consequences later.

"What you did was-"

"Crazy, stupid, insane," I interjected.

"Bloody brilliant."

"What?" That wasn't what I was expecting.

"We don't have practice this afternoon. And it's all because of a brown haired girl who knows just how to push our dear captains' buttons."

I think they were dumber than they looked. They might be geniuses at pranking innocent victims, but they really weren't thinking in the long term. "But you are going to have hell tomorrow at practice," I explained.

"We know, but this is the first time we have a free afternoon since the start of term. No matter how hellish practice might be tomorrow, we are beginning to think it's worth it.

"But, I might have made it worse between Katie and Wood." I already felt bad for getting detention, but I might have jeopardized Katie's position on the team.

"Katie will probably be back on the team by next week. I know that she is already planning on going to grovel at his feet tomorrow."

Well, that sounded like a problem solved. But I still had to face Wood at detention tonight and I wasn't looking forward to it – at all.

"So, we just wanted to give you our gratitude," Gred said.

"And feel free to fight with him whenever you want," Forge said.

"Thanks for that," I said. "But I have got to get going. There is a pile of work left for me and I really should start working now since I have detention today. The both of you should make it to class. It's not too late to go."

"Well, since its Transfiguration. We don't want to take our chance with dear old Minnie."

I waved a goodbye to the both of them as they started mumbling a plan on pranking their youngest brother Ron. I smiled as I thought about the two boys in the hallway. I had only previously talked to them in passing before this year. However, they were quickly becoming good friends no matter how annoying they were.

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Authors note: I had originally planned to put the scene with the detention in this chapter, but it was already late. I didn't want to make you guys wait any longer. But I promise, next chapter is filled with Oliver goodness.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

By ZebraBow

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

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**In which detention is somewhat unusual**

The entire the way to the Owlery, all I could think of was that maybe I should apologize to Wood tonight even though it wasn't entirely my fault. The thing with Katie would blow over by tomorrow and I would be the only one left that was still in a fight with him. I knew that he would take Katie back in a heartbeat because she was an amazing chaser and it would be pretty difficult to find an acceptable replacement. Plus, Mum _will_ send a Howler if she heard through the Hogwart's grapevine that I had a fight with a fellow student – even though no spells were involved. Also, I wasn't big on altercations and I could never hold a grudge for long enough to have any kind of permanent repercussions.

I ascended the stairs leading to the Owlery still musing over my thoughts. Maybe I could just tell him that I was sorry, no that wouldn't work. My apology wouldn't be heartfelt and I'm sure that he wouldn't forgive me that quickly. Maybe he would give me an apology of his own – since he owed me one and all.

One medium sized, tawny barn owl flew and landed on a ledge near me. She hooted and turned her neck sideways inquisitively.

"Hi girl," I greeted her. "I don't have any treats, but I'm sure that Mum will give you a couple. Can you take these to my house?" I tied the two letters to one her legs. She hooted and flew out of the Owlery.

Satisfied that I had sent my replies, I begin to make my way to the library. It was only early afternoon and I had plenty of time till the dreaded detention. Hopefully, I could finish the last of the remaining Transfiguration essays.

Walking into the library, I noticed that it was mostly empty except for some my fellow seventh years. N.E.W.T.S. were taking a majority of the time and it seemed that everyone was suffering from the extra workload. I walked to a table were Percy Weasley was sitting.

"Hi Percy!" I greeted him. "Where's Penelope?"

"Hi," he said in return without stopping from his work. Most probably, he finished all of his work and was working on things that wouldn't be due till next month. I don't know how he managed it, but he always stayed ahead in his work. "Penelope is taking a nap. She might be coming down with a cold."

"Oh, I hope she feels better soon!" I said while sitting down at the table. We both worked in comfortable silence, both of us completely engrossed in our work. Before I knew it, I was writing down the last paragraph on my very _last _Transfiguration essay that I had left. With a flourish, I wrote the concluding paragraph on how to Transfigure a pillow cushion into a toad and the magical properties and reasoning involved in it.

I gathered my work and placed it in my messenger bag and muttered a quick good bye to Percy who was still working diligently. It was a quarter past six and it would take me fifteen minutes to make my way to the greenhouses. I wasn't the least bit excited about detention or the fact that I would be in a room with Wood for hours.

The first thing I noticed upon entering the greenhouse was that it was completely empty. No sign of Professor Sprout or Wood anywhere. There was still time and I knew that Professor Sprout was always punctual. I didn't know if Wood was even planning on showing up tonight.

Before I knew it, Professor Sprout entered the room. "Hello Ms. Moore. It seems that Mr. Wood has yet to arrive." She looks at her wristwatch and says, "I'll give him another five minutes until I begin detention."

I stand there quietly in awkward silence with the head of my house. I wanted to say something, but I didn't know exactly what to say. I hadn't been an excellent example of Hufflepuff behavior lately. We were supposed to be nice and caring, but those weren't the qualities that I displayed today.

Wood walked in with a whoosh of air. His hair was perfectly windswept and there were a few beads of sweat on his brow. "Sorry I am late Professor," he said with his Scottish accent. His voice was tight as if he was holding back from saying something else – most probably what he really had on his mind.

"It's alright Mr. Wood, but do not repeat this again. Now, both of you hand over your wands." She held out her hand expectedly.

I know that she said not to bring wands to detention, but I wasn't exactly going to roam around the castle without my wand when there was an off chance of running into a dementor. I took my mahogany wood unicorn hair wand out of my robes pocket and reluctantly handed it over. Detention was going to be brutal without magic. Wood also handed his over without any protest either.

She took out a couple of trays of dried Caprius invitius, some large empty glass bottles, two pairs of gloves and placed them out on the long table next two knives. I was going to be handling sharp weaponry next to an angry Oliver Wood – not good at all. "I need all of these leaves to be cut into pea sized pieces and bottled up. Madam Pomfrey will be using these in the infirmary for students so take the utmost care. If the pieces, are too large they cannot be used in the potion since it would be too potent." She explained gesturing to the objects on the table.

"I would have had you clean the greenhouses, but a couple of students who had detention yesterday just did that chore. I know that this might be tedious, but it is not as hard as cleaning the greenhouse. I will be leaving you both alone. However, that does not mean that you are free to leave. If all of these leaves are not cut according to instruction, feel free to come tomorrow evening to finish your detention." With this, she took her leave from the greenhouse.

The silence was extremely awkward as we both just stood there. Wood was the one to make the first move. He literally _stomped_ over to the table, grabbed a tray, and sat as far away from me as possible. Well, it seemed that he was planning on being an excellent example of maturity tonight.

I sat down at the table and started working diligently. I knew that I should say something to Wood, but I was going to give him a chance to apologize first. Moments passed in utter silence with only the sound of the knives hitting the table as a disturbance.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Wood spoke. "I'm sorry," he began.

I swiveled around and faced him. He was facing me also. His brown eyes were staring into my green eyes. Since we were sitting so far apart, I couldn't really tell what emotions were passing through his eyes, but I was pretty sure that it was feelings of regret – you know since he made such a huge scene in class today.

"Okay," I said accepting his apology. If I had to be the bigger person and let him know his mistake, then I would let him.

"You know, for making you cry." He started making his way over to me and sat down next to me on the long bench. His eyes were really expressive and he looked concerned.

"What?" I croaked out. I was beyond confused.

He placed his hand on my shoulder in a comforting manner. My heart was beating erratically because of this small contact. "It's okay. Fred and George told me." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Just let it out if you want."

I stood up and my robes whirled due to the sudden movement. I huffed, "I didn't cry." My voice was squeaky. I couldn't believe they would say something like that to Wood.

"What?" Wood asked.

My eyes searched his with a sudden ferocity. "There were no tears shed. And I for sure, one hundred percent didn't cry in front the Weasley twins."

"Oh," he said with realization dawning. "No crying?"

"Definitely no crying," I said while sitting back down next to him.

"So, Fred and George were lying?" he asked.

"Yes, you shouldn't believe a word they say," I explained. "But you should already know that considering that they are your good friends."

"But I thought you lot were friends," he spluttered out. He pointed a finger accusingly at me, "I saw you talking to them yesterday at dinner."

"Okay, I may have spoken to them yesterday at dinner, but that doesn't mean that I broke down in sobs in front of them. In fact, I don't ever cry."

"Fine," he threw his hands in front of his chest defensively and cracked a small smile. "I believe you. I whole heartedly believe that you are an iron wall of emotions that doesn't break down at anything."

I smiled back. "Make all the fun you want, but honestly – I didn't cry over our little," I searched over the right word, "tiff."

His face blanched, "well, I'm sorry for that too. I went too far attacking your family."

"Apology accepted," I said and his face visibly relaxed. "And I'm sorry for questioning your captaincy."

"Thanks and I accept your apology." He stuck his hand out and looked at me expectedly. I gave him a confused expression, what was he trying to do?

"You're supposed to shake it," he explained. "Want a clean slate?"

I shook his hand, "alright," and I turned to look at the remaining amount of uncut leaves. There was a lot left over and I knew that we would have to work quickly to finish before curfew. I had no intent on coming back again tomorrow to finish this work.

Wood looked at the work and his eyebrows finished. "Maddie, let's finish this quickly. I don't want to cancel another Quidditch practice."

I looked at him and my face broke out in a huge grin. My name sounded absolutely _glorious _coming from his lips in that oh so delicious Scottish accent. "You never call me Maddie."

"That's your name and I thought we were friends now." He went to the end of the table and grabbed his things and placed it next to my tray of things. Sitting down and working industriously, Oliver looked the picture perfect version of the ideal student.

"Well, Oliver." He smiled unconsciously. "We need to finish this tonight because I don't want to spend another night in detention – even if the company is excellent."

"Hmm, I like the sound of that." He continued cutting the leaves, "by the way, what were you and the twins talking about?"

I almost choked on a breath of air, "Oh just nothing much – you know. They wanted my help in pranking Percy." I hoped my explanation was feasible and that he would buy it.

"They could've come and asked me for help since he is my best friend and all." I was just thankful that he believed my flimsy excuse. There was no way I was going to tell Oliver about their insane plan. Especially when it involved me and said Quidditch captain in question starting a romantic relationship.

"Yeah – you know them, always wanting to prank people."

He hummed in response and continued on in his task. We worked in a comfortable silence until my stomach let out the loudest growl I've ever heard in my life. My face turned a bright tomato red. I could feel the back of my ears heating up. Oh Merlin, this was so embarrassing.

Oliver laughed, "Guess you're a little hungry, huh?"

I blushed even harder. "All I had for lunch was chocolate mousse. By the looks of this, we won't finish until dinner is over. Guess I will just have to eat a ginormous breakfast tomorrow morning."

"You usually eat with Penelope right?" he asked.

"Yeah, most of the Puffs aren't really eager on having an early breakfast," I explained.

He chuckled softly. The rest of detention passed in a more than comfortable silence as we both hurried to finish the work. Occasionally, I would peak over at Oliver to see what he was doing. His brow was furrowed as if in deep concentration and he was taking great care in cutting the pieces to the exact size required. Thankfully, he was unaware of my glances – thank Merlin the boy is so oblivious to his surroundings – and was working diligently. I could tell that he had an excellent work ethic and this probably carried over onto the world of Quidditch also.

Say what you may say about the Gryffindor's insane practice schedule, I knew that nothing in life worth anything came without hard work. The Hufflepuff team would face a commendable opponent in their match against the Gryffindors.

To my surprise, the work was finished fairly quickly and the last of the leaves were bottled up. As soon as the last bottle was placed on the table, all of the trays and filled bottles disappeared. In their place, our two wands appeared. I grabbed my mahogany wand and put it inside my pocket. It's hard to explain, but I always get a comforting feeling whenever I have my wand on my person. My Grandpa Klein had explained to me when I was a little girl that a person's wand was like an extension of themselves. It not only helped channel their magic, but a part of the owner went into the wand itself.

Oliver and I walked out of the greenhouse both too tired to talk. My fingers ached from holding the knife and it was a long day overall for me. Much to my dismay, it was almost curfew and I knew that I didn't have enough time to pop into the kitchen and have a quick snack.

"Too bad about dinner - I could really go for some lamb chops right now," Oliver said as if reading my mind.

My stomach grumbled in response to the mention of food. I blushed a deep red color again, "might as well eat some of the left over Honey Duke's chocolate for dinner." I really needed to get my stomach under control. It was totally not acceptable for it to be growling every time food was mentioned.

"Mind if I walk you to your house?" Oliver asked tentatively.

I smiled and nodded. "Yes, that would be nice." Nice – more like bloody brilliant. "But don't make a habit of it. This is the second night that you have offered to walk me to my house," I said teasing him.

He laughed, "I don't remember offering last night. Honestly, I don't understand your need to argue with portraits in the middle of the night. If I didn't know any better, I would say that you are half insane."

"Trust me, it's an acquired taste."

Before I knew it, we both arrived in front of the Hufflepuff house entrance. Almost everyone in Hogwarts knew the entrance to the Hufflepuff house, but no one had entered it in a couple of years. I really didn't know why, but it's not like I visited other houses or anything. When I was a first year – all tiny and wide eyed – I had a very strong desire to visit the Gryffindor house. Both my parents and older brother were in Gryffindor and I had grown up listening to stories that happened in the Gryffindor common room. I was a little miffed when the Sorting Hat sorted me into Hufflepuff. "Well, thank you for walking me back."

"You're welcome. I just have to ask because honestly I have always wondered. Is there really a secret group of house elves in the Hufflepuff house?" Oliver asked sheepishly.

"Oh yes," I said while trying to bite back a smile, "they write all of our essays for us and give us the best foot massages ever!"

Oliver's eyes widened, "Really?"

I burst out laughing. "No, not really. Honestly, some of the rumors floating around here really make me wonder if people really don't have anything better to do with their time."

I brushed back a loose piece of hair that was trying to block my vision, "Good night Oliver. I had fun tonight. I'm glad we became friends."

He smiled and his dimples became even more prominent. I had never noticed them before, but now with his wide smile – they were noticeable to the whole world. And just because my brain stopped making coherent reasoning the moment I noticed his dimples, I placed a chaste kiss on his cheek and ducked inside the common room.

Oliver's grin froze and his eyes widened comically as I strolled away. The entry slammed shut, and my heart was beating a mile a minute. I was safely inside the common room, and away from Quidditch captains with charming dimples and magnetic accents.

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Authors Note: Please read and review about the pace of the story. Let me know if I should pick it up.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

By ZebraBow

Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter even though I really wish I did.

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**In which thoughts are muddled**

The entire night I kept tossing and turning in my bed wondering what part of my brain decided to take the moronic decision to _kiss _Oliver Wood. The only comforting thought I had was that it wasn't one of those long romantic ones that I had often seen couples share. It was quick and chaste. Hopefully, Wood would forget about it quickly. I was beyond sure that he had snogged a plethora of girls – he is a _fit _bloke – and my one measly kiss must not have meant much to him.

However, the nagging feeling that I wasn't going to get off the hook that easily still stayed in the back of my mind. I wish that I could get my hands on a time turner and make sure that tonight didn't happen. Well, the last part anyway. A huge part of me was relieved that I wasn't fighting with Oliver anymore. The Puff in me hated any form of conflict and I was pleased that I didn't have to make the first move.

And, it did feel quite nice working alongside with him and watching him laugh. The way his eyebrows creased and his dimples sunk were beyond adorable. I raised my fingers to lips in the absolute dark of my dorm room. I could still feel his warm skin against my lips in that brief moment of contact I had made and I involuntarily smiled at the memory. Groaning, I grabbed a pillow and faced it on my face. If I kept this train of thought up, I would be awake all night.

My eyes snapped open and it felt like it was still dark outside. After a night of restless sleep, all I wanted to do was fall back asleep. However, on cue, my stomach let out a large growling sound. I knew that it would be a mistake to go to sleep without eating dinner last night and with the totally non-healthy lunch I had yesterday, it was no wonder I was so hungry. I swung my legs over and planted them firmly on the ground. Gathering my messy hair into a knot on top of my head, I let out a yawn.

My internal clock was right, it was very dark outside. Prudence, Bridget, Cassandra were still asleep so I whispered a soft _lumos _for a little bit of light in the room. I proceeded to make my way to the bathrooms to get started with my morning routine.

Satisfied with my final appearance – fully dressed, hair neatly combed even though it was fully down today – I pocketed my wand and made my way quietly out of my house. It seemed as if the whole house was asleep and like most days – I was the first one awake. It wasn't even six as I made my way to the Great Hall. Usually, I never arrived at this time and I never knew when breakfast actually started. According to the brightest witch in school – Hermione Granger – the house elves woke early in the morning to prepare the giant morning feast for the entire school. The way she had said it made it seem like it was an injustice to them, but I knew from personal experience, since my family had two house elves, that they really enjoyed the work. Yes, I knew there are some families who took unfair advantage of them, but not everyone treated them poorly.

It came as no surprise when I walked in and noticed that the entire Hufflepuff table was empty. However, I was shocked when I couldn't find my usual breakfast partner – Penelope Clearwater – anywhere. In all the years I knew her, she was religiously a morning person. Nothing would disrupt her schedule. In fact, the few times that she missed coming early to breakfast was when she was sick.

I stifled a groan. Percy had mentioned yesterday that his girlfriend was coming down with a cold. I had hoped that she would have gotten better by now. I weighed my options. I could sit with someone else, but there wasn't anyone that I knew or from my year. Begrudgingly, I made my way to the kitchens. It had been a while since I visited the house elves, and they were better than no company at all.

I tickled the pear, a trick that a lot of the Puffs knew, and gained entrance into the kitchen. My strides came to a halt when I noticed that someone was already having breakfast at the small kitchen table. The person with his face turned away was chatting with a few of the elves, but I could make out who it was – that certain Scottish accent would be recognizable anywhere.

I took an intake of air, "Good morning Oliver!" I greeted him cheerfully. Maybe if I just pretended that a certain part of last night didn't happen, maybe he would too.

"Maddie!" he exclaimed with a mouthful of half chewed food. He dabbed his mouth with a napkin and gave me a crooked grin. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Same thing as you," I replied as I walked towards him and sat in the chair next to him, "was feeling really hungry this morning."

"Me too!" Oliver said. "I need to stock up on some energy before practice."

"You're having practice today?"

He nodded as he stuffed another piece of buttered toast in his morning. "Oh yeah, the first match is approaching quickly and I want the team to be prepared."

"So morning practice and evening practice?" It was quickly beginning to make sense as to why the Weasley twins were so desperate to get rid of their captain for a couple of years. I was beyond sure that my muscles would die of pure _exhaustion_ if I had that much physical exertion every day.

He nodded in confirmation and grabbed a few pieces of toast, "Sorry, but I have to run. The captain shouldn't be late to his own scheduled practice."

I waved a short goodbye as he strode out of the large kitchen. The guy was an enigma and I loved a good mystery. My stomach gave another loud rumble and I focused my attention on the large amount of food in front of me and took a sip from my goblet of pumpkin juice.

I made my way causally to the first class of the day – Charms. My mind was still wondering about Oliver Wood. He hadn't mentioned anything about the _kiss _from last night. In fact, I hadn't even seen in blush or stutter when I walked in. Maybe he was too concerned about the upcoming Quidditch match to ponder about trivial things like me or maybe he wasn't _attracted _to me. My heart sunk to my stomach as I thought about the second option.

I wasn't that special – not very smart or very athletic – some might even consider me average. Entering the classroom, I absent mindedly twirled a long strand of hair as I sat down next to Prudence. She was resting her head with her sandy blonde hair sprawled out on the table. "Good morning Prue."

She grunted in response and I giggled. "What's got you in such a chipper mood this morning?" she asks.

"Well, I had an excellent breakfast where I had an endless supply of cinnamon and raisin muffins. And a certain Quidditch captain might have made an appearance also."

"Lucky," she lifted her head up and met me with bloodshot eyes, "I had a nightmare about Transfiguration essays so I woke up late this morning. And then, I had just enough time to eat an apple and listen to Cassandra describe how delicious looking your father is."

I cringed, "Sometimes I really do worry about Cassie and whether this obsession with my dad is all that healthy."

"Wait, did you mention something about a Quidditch captain?"

I nodded – hardly able to suppress a grin.

She pointed an accusatory finger at me, "You had breakfast with Cedric Diggory? Didn't you? Of course, you did. I get almost no sleep and no food and you get an hour with a Greek god."

I groaned, "No Prue, not that Quidditch captain - the other one."

She gasped, "You didn't! You finally caved into Davies?"

I wanted to slam my head on the table, "I would never cave into Davies' powers of persuasion. I can't believe you thought that I would willingly spend an hour with Davies."

"Oh Merlin's long beard, tell me that you didn't eat breakfast with Flint!"

"Seriously Prue, I don't think I've ever spoken to him in my life. I was talking about the other captain. You know – the Gryffindor one."

Her eyes widened comically, "Oh, so you had one hour with a delicious guy with a Scottish accent. I heard rumors about his abs - apparently they are rock _solid_. Who knows, you might even get to feel them up close and personal this year if you keep up this pace."

"Prudence! Honestly, I can't believe some of the things you say. Your parents really don't know how to name their children appropriately."

"Hey, it's not my fault that I may have some genetic defects." With this we broke into a fit of giggles.

By the end of double Charms with the Ravenclaws, I felt completely drained of all energy. I wasn't the best at Charms. It required a lot of patience and concentration – two qualities that I didn't often possess. I made my way to the Great Hall with Prudence who was blabbering on about the new article in the Quibbler about how to attract a potential mate. Honestly, I wasn't sure if I should believe anything written in the Quibbler.

The Great Hall was filled with both students and food. I made a beeline towards the Hufflepuff table – and the plate full of chocolate mousse. My path was deterred by two people, one of whom engulfing me in a hug.

"Fred, let me go!" I hit his chest in an attempt to let go of me. He dropped me back on to the ground and I tried to put my tousled hair back into place. "What was that for?"

"Don't pretend like you don't know." Gred said.

"Tell me what I did so I can go eat some of the yummy food that is calling to me."

"Well, a certain captain came to practice this morning whistling." Forge said with his smile growing even wider. "Oliver is in such a good mood. Honestly, we had the best practice ever in a long time. Whatever you are doing, keep it up!"

I turned a deep red when I heard that maybe Oliver was happy because of me. At that moment, a tiny first year pulled on the corner of my elbow. I looked at the boy and raised an eyebrow. The small boy gave me a note and quickly scurried away.

I opened the note and it said,

_If you need help with the star charts, meet me at the astronomy tower at 10 tonight._

_Oliver_

Gred peered over my shoulder and read the note, "Already sending romantic notes to each other?"

I looked over to the Gryffindor table and saw that Oliver was smiling at me. Our eyes met and I couldn't help smiling back and nodding my head.

Forge gave me a thumbs up, "Just keep up the good work."

I gave them a small smile and made my way towards Prudence and the rest of the girls at the Hufflepuff table. In the back of my mind all I could think was one thing – what was I getting myself into?

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Authors Note: Sorry for the humongous delay. I have an eye infection because I'm so clumsy and managed to poke myself in the eye. And the doc told me not to strain my eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

By ZebraBow

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by the amazing J.K. Rowling.

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**In which one prepares for a not date**

As soon as I sat down at the Hufflepuff table, Prudence grabbed my wrist. "You're having a late night meeting with Oliver Wood tonight?"

I scoffed, "How did you even know that? I just literally came to know like two minutes ago."

"I'm all knowing," Prudence cracked a smile, "but seriously, some people over heard him talking about it with Percy."

"It's not a date."

"Of course it's a date," she waved a spoon at me, "or why else would he offer to help you in a course that he isn't even taking. Honestly Madeleine, can't you tell when a bloke fancies the pants off of you?"

I spluttered, "Come on Prue. I'm sure that he doesn't like me like _that_." I looked away wistfully, "hardly anyone does."

"They would if you let them. I've never seen you actively pursuing a bloke. This is the perfect time. Go for it! I know for sure that he is interested, I mean how couldn't he – you're bloody gorgeous."

I smiled as she punched my shoulder playfully. Maybe I should give Oliver a chance. If Prue said that he was interested in me meant maybe he really was. She always was right on point about these kinds of things. I was in my last and final year of schooling at Hogwarts and it was a little shameful to say that I've never had a serious boyfriend before. I didn't want to go out into the world with some much inexperience.

However, one thing was certain, I could never in a million years tell the males in my family that I was actually interested in – and possibly contemplating dating – someone.

"Is it true that you're meeting _the _Oliver Wood for a late night rendezvous? How did you manage that you lucky bird?" Cassandra said as she placed her bag on the table as she sat down. Her hair was a mess and her lip gloss was a little smudged around her lips: a tell-tale sign of what she was doing just a few minutes prior. "I don't know how you did it, but props to you."

I groaned, "Seriously, isn't there anyone in this castle who doesn't know every little tidbit about my personal life?"

"I don't know," Cassandra said in reply obliviously to my obvious sarcasm, "it would be pretty difficult since the Weasley twins are telling everyone about the raging romance between the Gryffindor captain and the green eyed Hufflepuff."

I was sure of one thing - I would strangle Fred and George Weasley the next time I saw them.

After lunch, I made my way reluctantly to the last class I had for the day – Care of Magical Creatures. I wasn't the least bit interested in the topic, but Bridget had somehow managed to con me into taking the class with her. She had this crazy dream of working as a dragon trainer. I always imagined her as a writer or healer, but she was my friend and I would support her in whatever she wanted to do – even if it included me taking a class that I found really boring.

It wasn't my fault that I couldn't manage to keep anything alive for more than a few days. It all started when my older brother brought home a goldfish from a Muggle fair when I was seven. The poor fish didn't even make it till morning – how was I supposed to know that Follartons Food for Magical Animals wasn't good for fish. Then there was the owl that my parents had gifted me when I received my Hogwarts letter – it ran away before I could even name it.

Animals didn't like me and I didn't like them – we were at a mutual understanding. Of course, Bridget would never understand this, she was babbling on about the special qualities of the giant squid, her blonde ponytail bobbing with her head.

Therefore, one could understand my disdain towards the subject and it being N.E.W.T. level just made it more difficult. Thank Merlin that Bridget was more than helpful with the essays. She was almost like a walking encyclopedia on magical menagerie.

"Isn't that right Maddie?" she asks with her head cocked to the side.

I was suddenly pulled out of my internal monologue, "Oh yeah."

She gave me a bright smile, "I am so glad you agree." She clapped her hands in front of her chest excitedly. "I can't wait to tell Hagrid that you agreed to help out!"

I stopped, "Help with what exactly?"

"Weren't you listening silly? I was talking about helping Hagrid with getting the Great Hall ready for Halloween. I am so glad that you decided to help!"

I groaned, this was just what I needed – more work on my plate.

Tap.

Tap.

I turned a page and looked at a page on my Astronomy text book. The companion book – a complete astronomical catalog – was also open on the table.

Tap.

I scribble down some notes about the lunar rotations of Jupiter's moons.

Tap.

Tap.

I chew the end of my quill nervously. I really had a lot of star charts left. Thank Merlin that I wasn't procrastinating anymore and finally decided to work on them tonight. Okay, maybe _I _hadn't decided – Oliver did.

Tap.

Or maybe I was just nervous about the fact that I was meeting Oliver tonight. He did offer to help, which was unusual – like Prue pointed out – since he didn't take Astronomy and never showed an interest in the topic. In fact, I was beyond sure that he took Divination.

Tap.

Ta – a hand reached out and stopped me mid tap. I looked up from my notes and saw the glowering face of Percy Weasley. "Could you stop doing that?"

"Doing what?" I asked innocently.

"Tha-at!" He sputtered out, "your incessant tapping."

Penelope blew her nose, "Yes Madeleine, it is a bit distracting."

"Sorry," I smiled sheepishly. I looked around at the almost empty library, scanning to see if anyone else was annoyed with my behavior.

Penelope sniffled and grabbed another tissue, "I understand if you're nervous about meeting Oliver tonight. I was really nervous about my first date with Percy."

At this statement, Percy reached across the table and squeezed her hand lightly. "And we turned out okay."

I ran my hand through my hair, "But it's not a date. I am so tired of telling people that. Tell the Weasley twins that if I ever see them, they are in a load of trouble for spreading ridiculous rumors."

The ruckus of dinner was heard as I walked into the Great Hall with Percy and Penelope from the library. I had managed to work on the newly assigned Care of Magical Creatures essay for the past two hours – even if I was preoccupied thinking about a certain boy. Bridget had promised to look over my essay before I submitted it, but she told me point blank that she wouldn't write it for me.

"Hey, I'm almost done with the essay. Will you look it over for me sometime tomorrow?" I asked Bridget as I sat down next to Cassandra.

Bridget nodded in agreement. "When are you going to meet Oliver?"

"The better question is: what are you going to wear?" Cassie asked.

I looked down at what I was wearing now. "At 10," I said looking at Bridget. "And I'm going to wear what I'm wearing now."

Cassie's mouth hung open. "You can't wear school robes if you plan on _seducing_ the bloke."

"I am not going to change if I just have to change again right before I go to sleep. And I am not going to seduce him. We are _just _friends. I thought that at least the three of you wouldn't listen to the Weasley twin's propaganda."

Cassandra's eyes lit up with determination, "Girls, we have a lot of work to do tonight if we are going to get her ready by 10."

And to my horror, my two other friends nodded in agreement.

In the end, I managed to reach a middle ground with my roommates. I would never agree to change my outfit and Cassie would never back down. So we settled on this: I would get to wear my school robes, but they would decide on my hair and makeup.

Surprisingly, they chose to leave my hair down and paired it with a Puddlemere United headband. Cassie explained that guys love girls with long hair; something about it being useful for snogging. Bridget, who was the one who picked the headband, said that since he loved Puddlemere United – it would send a subliminal message that he loves me.

I thought that both theories were rubbish, but I smiled and agreed since I wanted to leave as soon as possible. My makeup would stay simple as usual. I didn't want to look like a slag – a point Cassie rallied against since according to her, dark black eye shadow would make my eyes pop.

I managed to escape from their clutches a little half past nine. I climbed the stairs leading to the astronomy tower and pushed the door open. I was a little bit surprised to see that Oliver was already there peering into a telescope.

"Hello Oliver!" I greeted him. The door behind me closed shut.

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Authors Note: I know: no Oliver! It's been a while since my last update and I wanted to give you guys something, since you've all been so wonderful. I'm floored by the response I'm getting to this story. By the way, my birthday is tomorrow so consider this a present from me to all of you!

The next chapter won't be put up for at least another month.

So Review and Get a Sneak Peak!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

By ZebraBow

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JKR.

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**In which the stars twinkle and one avoids a possible date**

"Hi," Oliver greeted me back as I walked in. He was peering into a telescope that was aimed towards the dark sky. I was pleasantly surprised to note that we were the only two students working on this particular night at the Astronomy Tower. Seems like most of my classmates decided to take the lazy route and wait until the last minute.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

He chuckled softly, "Well, what do you think?" He said pointing to the telescope.

I smiled back, "Looks like you started without me"

"Not exactly," Oliver ran a hand through his lush hair – _swoon _– and turned back to turning one of the many knobs on the telescope. I had never actually figured out how to work the actual thing in all my years at Hogwarts and Oliver was adjusting the telescope like a pro. "I wasn't sure what your homework was, so I decided to show you something."

I walked over to the telescope and pushed a stray lock of hair that had escaped my headband behind my ear. I saw a plethora of stars. It always amazed me how clearly one could see the stars from the Astronomy Tower – at home, I could only make out some fuzzy lights, which more often than not, turned out to be muggle airplanes. Even the view of the stars from Hogwarts seemed magical; Tristan had once told me that it was because Hogwarts was so isolated from all the bright lights. "It's beautiful," I gushed to Oliver, "But I don't really understand what you're trying to show me."

"In 1979, after the start of the International Star Registry, John Carlson named a star after his wife Grace. You're looking at that star – the one in the middle."

I muttered a soft, "Oh," and looked at the 12th edition Carlson's Guide to Advanced Astronomy in my bag. "That's pretty romantic." I told him.

He chuckled, "Yeah, Grandpop is still pretty sweet on Grandmum."

I smiled and then took a second before what he said really sunk in, "Your grandfather is John Carlson - the famous astronomer - the one who literally wrote the text book on Astronomy?"

Oliver chuckled again as he saw my expression – mouth agape and eyes wide. "Yeah, my mum's maiden name is Carlson."

I closed my mouth, "Whoa – just give me a minute. It's still sinking in."

He tousled my hair softly, "Don't worry. A lot of people don't know that I'm related to him. Surprisingly, I think you're the only person other than Percy to know this little tidbit."

I smiled at the thought of him sharing a secret with me. A few moments of silence passed by and I looked again into the telescope to see the cluster of stars to see the one that was named after Grace. "Why didn't you take Astronomy?" I asked turning to face him.

"Ah, yes – the eternal question. My parents asked me the same thing when I decided to take Divination. My Grandpop taught me almost everything he knew and I love Astronomy, but…" He shuffled his feet awkwardly. "It wouldn't be the best schedule for a Quidditch captain. I would have to wake up early in the morning and it isn't exactly ideal for me to stay awake late in to the night."

"Then why did you ask to help _me_?" The question was out of my mouth like word vomit. As soon as I said it, Oliver turned a light pink as his cheeks warmed over.

Oh, realization hit me like a bludger to the face. All the things that Prudence told me came rushing into my mind. Maybe Oliver did like me or why else would he agree to help me even though he just said that he chose to _not _take this class because of Quidditch.

He cleared his throat and I looked up to meet his eyes, "Well, let's get started?"

Oliver wasn't joking when he said that he was good at Astronomy. It was no wonder when we managed to finish in record time. He helped me map out all of the star charts and even taught me how to properly use the telescope.

He was beyond patient when I asked him over and over what each little knob on it did. And the times whenever his fingers would brush over mine when he helped adjust the focus – I would almost swoon.

After his initial blush over my stupid question, Oliver was the picture of cool, calm, and collected. I, on the other hand, blushed and _squeaked _throughout the entire night. And if that wasn't unattractive enough, I managed to stutter the entire time too. I could feel his strong muscles behind me when I peered into the eyepiece. All of those finger light brushes on my back had my mind a million miles away from star charts and what I was actually supposed to be doing.

The grids were marked and I gathered up all of the finished work and placed it in my bag. I ran a hand absentmindedly through my hair as I waited for Oliver to finish looking into the telescope one last time. "I should come up here more. I really miss looking at them and I don't go over to Grandpop's enough over the holidays." He threw me a sly smile, "Or I could just use that as an excuse to come help you more often."

I blushed, "I would really like that."

We walked quietly down the hallway towards the Hufflepuff common room. It was well past curfew, but we were in no hurry. Oliver had taken permission for both of us earlier in the day – he was so considerate. I would sneak a few glances at him and try not to swoon. The silence was comfortable as I thought about all the things that had occurred over the last few days.

"A knut for your thought?"

I scoffed, "My thoughts are worth much more than that – at least a galleon."

"What were you thinking about?"

"Hmm," I mumbled, "I don't know, just how that this is like the third time that you've walked me to my house." I fiddled with the strap of my bag. "It's nice." I said the last part quietly hoping that he wouldn't hear it.

Oliver gave me a warm smile in response, "Well, here you are madam. You have safely arrived at your humble abode." He gave a gentlemanly bow and held out his hand.

I laughed and gave a small curtsy, "Thank you kind sir for making sure that I arrived safely." I adjusted the strap of the bag a little, "But seriously, thank you so much – for all the help," I leaned up and gave him a soft kiss on the cheeks, "and laughs."

I had just barely entered the common room before I was attacked by three people. Prudence was dressed in her "Cromwell Crest" pajama robes. They were an ostentatious Christmas present from her Slytherin-Pure-Blood-We-Are-Greater-Than-Everyone-Else Grandparents. She really didn't like wearing them except for the fact that they were stitched from the silk of a rare species of Chinese silk worm. Prue knew that it must have cost them a pretty penny so she decided to actually use them rather than burn the robes like Patience did.

Bridget was wearing her smiley-face pajamas with the long sleeves rolled up to the elbow. She wore them often and even got them in multiple pairs with different color smiley-faces. It came as no surprise that the quintessential Hufflepuff had extremely happy sleeping wear. However, her outfit was contrasted with the black beanie that covered her head till the ears.

Cassandra was the best sight to see. I didn't know what to think about her entire outfit. Her hair was pulled back into a high pony tail, but her face had an orange peel face mask that covered her whole face except her eyes. She looked even more ridiculous with her too-short shorts and small tank top.

"So, what happened tonight?" Prudence asked.

"Did you kiss him? Tell me you kissed him!" Bridget was jumping up and down clapping her hands.

"Forget kissing," Cassandra exclaimed. "Tell me that you found a secluded corner and you had your way with him." Oh Merlin, my friends are so embarrassing. Thankfully no one else was in the room to see this sight.

"Whoa," I put up my hand defensively. "I'm not telling you guys anything." I started walking towards the dormitory and said over my shoulder, "Besides, I don't kiss and tell."

They all squealed and followed me into the dormitory. "Come on! Tell us!" Prudence pleaded.

I placed my bag on my bed. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed and fall asleep, but I knew that they wouldn't let it rest until I told them everything that happened tonight. "Ok," I took a breath, "I'll tell you guys. Just let me change into my pajamas first."

They agreed and I went to the bathroom and changed into my sleeping wear. My four roommates were all wide awake and sitting on their respective beds. It was a little unusual that the amount of seventh year girls in Hufflepuff House were less than the other houses. In first year when we were all sorted into Hufflepuff, we had no choice other than to become good friends. I knew Prudence before I started at Hogwarts, but Bridget was a pleasant surprise. She was a sweet girl and completely clueless about the magical world. She taught us about the muggle world and we taught her about the magical world.

Cassandra, on the other hand, took some time to adjust to. She was really different from the rest of us. Cassie had a few flaws: she was obsessed with my dad, she flirted with too many guys, and she wasn't all that interested in school. However, she was polite and nice to us – if you discounted her obsession with my dad.

"So?" Bridget was on the edge of her bed, face aglow with excitement.

"Okay," I grabbed my hair to put into a loose pony tail. "The entire night was magical. He was already waiting for me when I got there. He is really good in Astronomy and he taught me so much stuff that I didn't even know. Oliver was so sweet and nice." I was still babbling on about the night with the girls making sounds of agreement. "He was the perfect gentleman, but there was this special energy in the air. I don't know. I can't explain it."

"Oh, that was probably all of the sexual energy." Cassandra explained. "You should take him into a broom closet and rip his robes off with your teeth."

"Cassandra, you are really disgusting!" Prudence exclaimed.

"What," Cassandra threw her hands up in exasperation, "I bet he has a really fit body from playing all of that Quidditch. I've dated a couple of Quidditch players and they have really nice bodies."

"Well, tell us what you think all of that special energy." Bridget said.

"I don't know. All of those finger light brushes," I lay back onto my bed, "and the accidental touches – they were driving me crazy. I wanted to grab him by the collar and snog his face off."

Cassandra looked positively delighted, "Oh Maddie! I have taught you so well."

I groaned, "But the main point is that I _didn't_. I didn't snog his face off and I didn't do anything with him in the tower other than work on the Astronomy star charts and just talk."

"What did you talk about?"

"Nothing and everything," I giggled. "Our conversation just flowed and I didn't even keep track of the topics that we covered, but it felt nice. And he makes me happy - so happy that I gave him another kiss on the cheek."

Prudence scoffed, "Another kiss?"

"You silly cow! Why didn't you tell us about this _kiss _before?" Cassandra threw a round yellow pillow at my face.

The next morning I woke up a little after eight. It was no surprise that my roommates were still sleeping when I woke up groggy eyed. We had stayed up into the late hours of the night. Initially, talking about my meeting with Oliver and then about boys in general. Bridget and Cassandra had even risked an early morning snack run to the kitchens to grab something we could munch on. The three of them had fallen asleep after three, but I stayed up even later just thinking about Oliver. Even thinking about him made me feel giddy.

I groaned and gathered my hair away from my face. Since I was already awake and not feeling the least bit hungry, I decided to go to the Owlery. I had written a letter to Emily yesterday about the upcoming wedding that I yet had to post and it looked like my friends wouldn't be awake for at least another few hours.

I got dressed in a pair of light wash jeans and a maroon cashmere sweater. It was a little chilly outside, but one of the rare sunny September days. After putting on my shoes and all-time favorite Puddlemere United bracelet, I grabbed the letter and left the common room.

I walked slowly up the Owlery relishing in the feeling of sunlight on my skin. I loved sunny days and it was a rare treat to have a day like this.

After posting the letter, I decided to stop by the library and see if I could find Penelope. She had asked me to look over her Transfiguration essay before and I finally had enough free time to do so. "Hey Maddie! Wait up!" a voice yelled down the hallway.

I turned around and cursed at my bad luck. Roger Davies was jogging down the hallway with a bright smile on his face. I had really hoped that I could avoid him for at least a few more days to prevent the inevitable. I plastered a smile on my face, "Good morning Roger!" I greeted him.

"Hey," he said in a manner which I guess was supposed to be attractive. I didn't have anything against the bloke, but it was really difficult to think of someone as good looking when you've known them your entire life. Mrs. Davies and my mother were school mates and I've always just known Roger. "Isn't it weird that we were in the same hallway at the same time?"

"Oh yeah, almost feels like you were stalking me," I said sarcastically.

He gave a nervous chuckle and ran a hand through his hair. "Listen, I know that it's a little bit early, but I wanted to ask you before anyone else had the opportunity. Want to go to Hogsmeade with me on the next visit?"

My eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets. "The next Hogsmeade visit isn't till Halloween."

Roger gave me a smug grin, "Oh, I know."

I grimaced and thought about my escape options. He had managed to corner me in an almost empty hallway on a Saturday morning when no normal people would be awake. If any of my friends were with me, they would have already said a reason to get me out of this mess. On top of all this, I can't believe that he just asked me out on a date that wouldn't even happen for another month.

Roger was definitely a persistent bloke. I already had used the great-aunt-Eloise-might-visit-me-that-weekend and my all-time favorite: Prudence-was-having-an-emotional-breakdown too many times last year. He really wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed if he couldn't take the hint that I had no interest in going out with him -like ever. His grip on my wrist tightened and I was pulled out of my internal monologue. "I can't go to Hogsmeade with you that particular weekend because..." I drifted off trying to give a plausible explanation. I needed to think of something positively brilliant that would cause Roger Davies to never ask me out again.

I scanned the courtyard trying to buy some time. My eyes wandered to a familiar head of brown hair and an idea struck me, "I can't go with you because I am going with Oliver Wood."

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Authors Note: So, all of the people who reviewed for the previous chapter got a sneak peak for this chapter. Hope all of you liked all of the Oliver goodness.

Review and get a cookie/faster update.

You know you want to.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

By ZebraBow

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Harry Potter, but I don't.

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**In which plans are made**

"Prue, wake up," I whispered gently to the pile of blankets on Prudence's bed. I knew that my best friend was somewhere underneath the mountain of blankets. "Wake up!" I gently started shaking her.

She groaned and rolled over to the other side of the bed farther away from me. It did no good since the beds were quite small and she would be too lazy to actually physically move away from me.

"Prudence," I hissed. "I need your help." I started tugging at her blanket. It came down to her chest before she pulled it back up to cover her head.

She held on to it like a lifeline. "What you want Maddie? It's not even morning yet!" She groaned from underneath the blanket."

"Please," I pleaded with her. "Get up! It's important! And it is morning if it's almost ten in the morning."

"If the bloody sun isn't in the highest position in the sky, don't even considering touching me right now." Prudence was a stubborn as a Hippogriff on Saturday mornings.

"Oh, do shut up!" Cassandra mumbled from her bed underneath her own pile of blankets. "Both of you need to use inside voices. Some of us are trying to get our beauty sleep."

Bridget stuck her head out of the blanket and gave a mumble in agreement from her bed. She retreated into her bed and returned to sleeping.

I probably had the laziest roommates in all of Hogwarts. In fact, I don't ever remember seeing them awake before twelve on Saturdays. They all claimed that it was their own individual lazy days: a time to hole up in their beds and ignore life in general. I sat down on my bed in a huff, "Well, fine. I won't tell you the incredibly stupid thing that I did this morning."

Prudence groaned and sat up on her bed. "No heavy discussions before breakfast. Let me get dressed first." Her expensive robes were wrinkle free – as expected – and her braided hair was a little messy.

Cassandra also got up mumbling about having a she-devil as a roommate. I wasn't entirely sure if she was talking about me, but one thing was certain. Beauty sleep didn't do much good for Cassie. She looked like she had picked a fight with a Hungarian Horntail sometime last night.

Speaking of dragons, the dragon enthusiast of the seventh year Hufflepuff girls was still blissfully sleeping in her bed. I tiptoed over to her bed and pulled the covers off entirely. "Maddie, I'm going to _avada_ you!"

"So, let me get this straight," Prudence grabbed another apple fritter, "You told Roger Davies that you couldn't go to Hogsmeade with him because you promised Oliver that you would go with him."

"Uh-huh." I watched in mild disgust as she smeared a spoonful of cream cheese on her apple fritter.

"But Oliver didn't ask you." Bridget calmly took a sip of freshly squeezed orange juice.

"Yup."

"I still don't understand what the big problem is." Cassie reached over to grab a banana and started to slowly peel the banana.

"The problem is that Roger is going to know that something is wrong if he asks Oliver about his date with Maddie or when Maddie does go to Hogsmeade without Oliver." Prue explained to Cassie.

"In other words, I'm screwed," I interjected.

"Well, that's a pretty easy one to solve. Why don't _you _just ask Oliver to go with you?" Cassie stated as it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Oi, Oliver!" She shouted to the Gryffindor table.

Oliver Wood – who was, thank Merlin, blissfully unaware of the current situation – looked up towards our table. I gave a nervous smile and waved to him when his eyes met mine. He gave a smile back and went back to conversing with his mates.

Prudence leaped over the table and clamped her hand on Cassie's mouth. "What the bloody hell are you thinking?" she hissed.

Cassie struggled against Prudence's hand, but Prue kept it over her mouth before she blurted more nonsense. "Whatever you decide, do it fast," Bridget said giving a nervous look towards the Ravenclaw table where Roger Davies eyes were zeroed in on an unaware Oliver Wood.

Oh Merlin. I slammed my head on the table

I eventually decided on facing my monstrous blunder and come clean with Oliver. I mean, he would understand – hopefully – and be willing to go with me even if it was a pity date. My fleeting moment of bravery went away quickly as it appeared. No wonder I wasn't sorted into Gryffindor – I truly belonged in Hufflepuff.

Avoiding Oliver was no simple matter. I had never accounted how many times I would accidently be in the same room as him before. After a small panic attack with the girls, I had managed to come up with a fool proof plan. _I _would stay away from Oliver Wood and the girls would keep away Roger Davies away from Oliver.

It had taken a surprising amount of bribing to get the girls to go along with the plan. Bridget was the only one willing to help out from the kindness of her soul. Prudence finally gave in after I promised her the remaining stash of chocolate frogs I had hidden away in a secret compartment in my trunk. Cassie was the toughest cookie to crack – she agreed after I graciously offered her a signed autograph _and_ one of my father's old practice shirts that he had actually used and worn.

I stayed away from the thoughts of what Cassie would do once she got her gritty little hands on my dad's old t-shirt. I knew none of them would be appropriate enough for my sanity's sake.

So, I kept my distance from him. It wasn't an easy task, but one I was willing to work with. My grandiose plan came to a sudden halt when I realized that I would share not one – but _two _ – classes with him on Monday. Honestly, I would understand him taking Transfiguration, since the head of this house did after all teach the class, but Muggle Studies? Where in Holy Hippogriffs did he get that bright idea? There weren't a lot of non muggle-borns in the class since it would be a ton of work for anyone who wasn't accustomed to living in the muggle world on a usual basis. I still didn't understand the working of a microwave or television so for the life of me I couldn't fathom why Oliver – I never been to Muggle London before I was eleven – Wood would want to take that class. And by tomorrow morning, the chance of Creepy Roger talking to Oliver was more than I was willing to take.

Upon my sudden realization, I begin to have a panic attack – in the middle of a hallway looking like a lunatic. Everyone else in the castle was enjoying an unusually warm Sunday afternoon while I had to plot a madwoman's scheme in order to keep my social life out of absolute humiliation.

I sat down resting my back against the cold castle wall. My new jumper that Nana Moore knitted for my last birthday was a little too stuffy for this warm weather so the sudden coolness felt wonderful. Maybe it wasn't too late to fix everything – I could still move somewhere far away like France. I heard that Beauxbatons was beautiful this time of the year. Oh Merlin, why was I such a coward? I thumped my head against the wall.

"You look a little down on your luck Mads," a voice said.

I craned my neck upwards and met the eyes of two tall redheads. "Sorry boys, but I don't have the time to deal with the two of you today." I stood up and dusted the dust off of my jeans. Satisfied that I had gotten most of the dust – honestly we live in a magic castle, couldn't they sweep the corridors more – I looked at the two twin boys more closely. "You're up to something!" I stated.

"Well, a little birdie told us –"

"That you need a date with our fabulous Captain." Gred stated.

"I see that Cassandra talked to the two of you," I said dryly. Honestly, why she couldn't keep her nose out of my personal business I didn't understand. I always looked the other way during her multiple transgressions. Cassie had made it her personal goal to fix my problem and even started a plan titled 'Maddie-Oliver Officially Together' or MOOT. I told her the point was moot, but I don't think she understood. Bridget and Prue did crack a smile at my witty comment.

"Of course, and we are entirely on the MOOT ship." Forge said.

"If we knew that all we needed was Cassandra Middlebrooks help to get you to go on a date with our dear Oliver, we would have enlisted her a long time ago," Gred explained.

"She has already started working on an elaborate sixty-three step plan that will ensure you going to Hogsmeade with Oliver Wood," Forge added on.

My eyeballs almost bulged out, "sixty-three?" I asked incredulously. I can't believe that Cassie put the time and effort to think up such an elaborate detailed plan. If she was this dedicated towards her studies, she wouldn't be failing half her classes.

The two boys nodded seriously. "Yes, I believe that you sitting in the middle of the hallway looking like Sirius Black's twin sister was step seven. Or was it eight?"

"I think it was eight." They shared a smile at my exasperated look. "We were just having a laugh Mads. Do you really think that Middlebrooks has the brains to think something that elaborate up? She would have to be one of those evil geniuses!"

Of course, deep down I knew that Cassie – who thought that giants were not real until last year – couldn't think up something so detailed as to having sixty three steps. She might be evil in the I want to sleep with your father sort of way, but she was far from a genius. "Thanks boys, it's nice to know that I can provide some sort of entertainment for you."

"But don't you worry Mads. _We _have cooked up the perfect plan to get you together with Oliver." Gred said in all seriousness.

I was curious, "Really? What is this amazing plan of yours?" Surely, there plan would be loads better than mine of moving away to France to live with Great-aunt Eloise.

Forge smiled, "Just make sure that you're at the courtyard by the Muggle Studies classroom tomorrow when everyone is going to lunch."

"What?" That was their brilliant plan? I had seen them work pure magic during some elaborate schemes while pulling pranks. Maybe I should put my faith in them and just let the chips fall where they may.

"Don't forget. Tomorrow. Courtyard before lunch."

I nodded my head. "Got it."

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Authors Note: I know that this chapter is horribly short and horribly late. And mostly just a filler chapter, but I really wanted to post something. I edited this chapter so much because I couldn't agree with the flow of things. Finally, I realized if I just made what comes later a second chapter, it would just be smoother.

But next chapter is longer and filled with Oliver goodness!

Review and let me know about what you like/don't like about this story so far.


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